UFC 200 has a new main event: Daniel Cormier will battle Jon Jones in a light heavyweight title unification fight at the hotly-anticipated show on July 9 in Las Vegas. The fight replaces the originally scheduled main event between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz, which was canceled after McGregor failed to appear in Las Vegas to film promotional materials for the fight. With McGregor pulled from the show, UFC needed to scramble to find a new main event for the milestone pay-per-view.

The fight holds considerable intrigue, considering this is Jones’s shot at redemption following his arrest in Albuquerque, New Mexico last year on a hit-and-run charge. Although he took a plea deal to avoid jail time, Jones was stripped of his title and sidelined for over a year. That is, until his return at UFC 197 last weekend, as Jones returned for his first fight in 15 months, defeating Ovince Saint Preux via unanimous decision in an interim 205-pound title fight. The fight had originally been scheduled to be a rematch between Jones and Cormier, but the light heavyweight champ suffered an injury. UFC 200 is as good a time as any to finally give fans this rematch, as Jones is looking to get his belt back, which Cormier won with a victory over Anthony Johnson back at UFC 187 in a fight for the vacated title. It ought to be a solid fight.

Credit: UFC

That said, I do feel a bit bad for Conor McGregor though, since he campaigned so hard to get the Diaz rematch. Maybe he should have just done the damn commercials, and then we’d still have the McGregor-Diaz main event. But he played hard ball, and UFC called his bluff, so here we are. Ah well, I’m sure we’ll get McGregor-Diaz II eventually, but if Dana White had made it clear that McGregor will have to defend his featherweight title against the winner of the Jose Aldo-Frankie Edgar No. 1 contendership fight at UFC 200 first. Otherwise, he’ll have to forfeit his title just like Jones had to last year. And if this entire situation has proven anything, it’s that UFC isn’t afraid to call McGregor on his attempted powerplays. While it’s disappointing to lose McGregor for this hallmark show, I still think we’ve got a pretty solid fight card, between Jones-Cormier, Aldo-Edgar, Meisha Tate vs. Amanda Nunes, and Cain Velasquez vs. Travis Browne. For what it’s worth, I’m definitely looking forward to the show.

But what do you think of Jones vs. Cormier II headlining UFC 200? Sound off in the comments!